See this story, which says that the Green Party of Canada has sued to gain admittance into next month’s debates. The election itself is May 2.
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Cecil Bothwell says he will attempt to get on the ballot in North Carolina’s 11th district in 2012, as an independent candidate. No independent candidate has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina for either house of Congress. The current law requires a petition signed by 4% of the registered voters. However, bills are pending in each house of the legislature to ease the requirements.
Bothwell is a member of the Asheville city council. He is upset with the incumbent Democrat in this district. See this story. Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.
On March 30, the Vermont Secretary of State filed a notice of appeal to the State Supreme Court, to try to overturn the February 22, 2011 ruling of a lower state court in Trudell v State. The lower court had ruled in that case that the June petition deadline is probably unconstitutional; but had agreed to hold a trial, to give the state a chance to submit evidence as to why an early deadline is necessary.
Before 2010, the Vermont petition deadline was in September. The legislature moved it to June when it moved the primary from September to August. Because Vermont has 120 years of experience with an independent candidate deadline in October or September, it is difficult for the state to produce any evidence that a June deadline is necessary. If the state says the deadline in June is needed to prevent sore losers, that argument is easy to rebut. If a state wants to ban sore losers, it may do so directly, without making the deadline early for all independents, sore losers and non-sore losers alike.
The state had asked the lower court for reconsideration, but the lower court denied that on March 30.
The West Virginia legislature adjourned on March 18, having passed few election law bills. Bills that failed to pass included two bills to re-define “political party”. Currently, a qualified party is one that polled 1% for Governor at the last regular election. The bills would have added alternatives. Another bill that failed to pass would have eliminated the straight-ticket device. Another would have passed the National Popular Vote Plan.
The Governor vetoed HB 2438, which would have clarified the definition of “independent voter” to make it clear that a registered member of an unqualified party is considered to be an independent. The only time this makes a difference is when a party entitled to its own primary has a rule allowing independent voters to vote in its primary. The Governor vetoed the bill because of other, unrelated provisions in the bill.
Restrictive bills that failed to pass included several bills to force declared write-in candidates to pay a filing fee (SB 29 and HB 2417); a bill to change the order of parties on the ballot so that the party with the most voter registrations is always listed first on the ballot (HB 2444); and a bill to provide that the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be made public (HB 2533).
The Governor signed HB 3100 on March 30. It repeals the law that says liquor can not be sold on election day.
The Tennessee bills to make slight improvements in ballot access for new and minor parties have been delayed. This is fortunate, because it will give more time for Tennessee activists to make their case that the bills are not nearly good enough.
SB 935 was to have been voted on in the Senate floor on March 31, but that vote has been postponed to April 7. HB 794, which is identical, will be heard in the full State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday, April 5. The full committee will allow testimony, even though the subcommittee on March 30 did not allow testimony. However, people who wish to testify must give advance notice.
Both bills move the petition deadline from March to early April, but early April is still too early, according to the U.S. District Court decision from last year that struck down the old law. Furthermore, the bills do not reduce the number of signatures, 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. If the pending bills to lower the number of signatures pass in Oklahoma, Alabama, and North Carolina, then Tennessee will require more signatures (under this bill) to qualify a new party than any other state except California, Georgia and Texas. The 2012 requirement in Tennessee under this bill is 40,042 signatures. Tennessee didn’t require any signatures at all to qualify a party before 1961, and yet never had a ballot with more than six parties on it.